Is it permissible for a woman to remove the jilbab or the shirb (head covering) outside her home?

The questioner : Shaykh, regarding the hadith of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that a woman is forbidden from removing her clothes in other than her husband's house, please clarify this hadith. Some of our brothers say removing the jilbab or the shirb or the head covering. May Allah reward you with good for explaining the meaning of this hadith.

The Shaykh : This reality is among the matters that we must pay attention to and set boundaries for. Ten years ago, we were debating with some of the followers of taqlid (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), led by Dr. al-Bouti. He used to accuse some of our Salafi brothers of not knowing the principles of the sciences, and we would see them declaring things forbidden and permissible as they pleased. So we used to defend ourselves and say this is an accusation. But, unfortunately, I say that this accusation has become a present reality today. Every one of our Salafi brothers feels that his mind has opened up a bit and he has realized that there is the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and there is rigidity and taqlid, and following, and ijtihad (independent legal reasoning), and so on. So he wants to get rid of taqlid, he follows his own head, and he issues fatwas from his ignorance and his intellect. And we hear fatwas every day of all shapes and colors. My brother, these fatwas require practice and knowledge of many sciences that help a person understand the Islamic ruling first; then, secondly, he must practice this for many long years. And this is the example before us today that the brother Abu 'Abdullah raised.
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: In some narrations: And the intended meaning is the mahram relatives: So we heard that when a woman goes to visit her friend, she wants to visit her just as she goes out into the street, and she wants to stay in her friend's house wearing her jilbab. Why? Because of this hadith. My brother, the hadith says "her clothes," she removed her clothes, not she removed from her clothes. This requires knowledge of the Arabic language. Well, these hasty brothers of ours have no knowledge of the Arabic language at all. So I, the pure non-Arab, sometimes find myself correcting our Arab brothers, as if I am going to teach you the language. There is a difference between "she removed her clothes" and "she removed from her clothes." And we know this from the texts of the Book and the Sunnah. In truth, the merit in our learning of the Arabic language is not that we lived among you here or there, no; but we lived in an atmosphere different from yours. Otherwise, we would be like you and share your understandings, which are what? We want to say illiteracy. They are not understandings derived from the Arabic language that springs from the Book and the Sunnah. Look now, when our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned the older women in the Noble Qur'an, He said: He did not say that they should remove their clothes; because if He had said that, it would mean she comes out, O my Lord, as You created me. But He said: .
Then the jurists differed on what the meaning of "from their clothes" is, i.e., what type of this garment is, not the clothes, what type of this garment is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) permitted this type of women, who are the older women, to remove? The narrowest opinion is that she removes what? The burqu' (face veil), meaning she takes it off. This phrase can also be understood in a twisted, inverted way; because "placing" gives two meanings: placing the cap on his head, but sometimes it comes in the opposite sense, like what is narrated about al-Hajjaj the tyrant that he ascended as a preacher to the people of Iraq when he became their governor, where he said:
"I am the son of Jala and the one who sees the tips of the teeth... When I remove the turban, you will know me."
"When I remove" means I take it off, not I put it on and place it. Similarly here: meaning that they should remove it, and that they should lift it, and that they should take it off. So what is the garment that was permitted for this type of women to remove? The narrowest opinion is the burqu'. These are the ones who say that it is obligatory for a woman to cover her face. So what does this older woman remove? Only the handkerchief.
A second opinion is that she removes the jilbab, the jilbab that covers her entire body. And as we mentioned in the hijab of the Muslim woman, and we mentioned in many gatherings, that the Muslim woman, and this is in fact a sin that the masses of women fall into, even some of the Salafis, the Muslim woman when she goes out of her house must go out wearing the khimar and the jilbab. Wearing the khimar and the jilbab means wearing the khimar that she prays in, and over it the jilbab, not wearing what they call today the shirb. And no matter how much this noble, scrupulous, pious woman cares and covers her hair and her neck and everything, she brought the khimar and left the jilbab. She applied one text and neglected another text, where He (Mighty and Majestic) said: In the other verse it says: So there is a jilbab, and under this jilbab is a khimar. So we said the narrowest opinion is the one that says she reveals her face, because there is no longer fear of fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) for this older woman. Following this opinion, she removes only the jilbab and remains in her khimar. So she is still covered in her hair and in her neck and in everything. But the precaution that results from combining the khimar and the jilbab, this precaution permitted her not to take that precaution, so she removes the jilbab and remains in the khimar. The widest opinion, finally, the widest that was said in interpreting the verse is that she does not have to remove her khimar, meaning she reveals her head hair and her face and her neck, because there is no fear of fitnah for her. So where did all this come from? From His saying: The linguists call this: a partitive.